Colonel Harland Sanders was born on September 9, 1890, in Henryville, Indiana. At the age of 40, Sanders was running a popular Kentucky service station that also served foodâ€”so popular, in fact, that the governor of Kentucky designated him a Kentucky colonel. Eventually, Sanders focused on franchising his fried chicken business around the country, collecting a payment for each chicken sold.

After complaining that he couldn’t find a good hamburger in Columbus, Ohio, Dave Thomas opened his own restaurant on November 15, 1969: Wendy’s, named after Thomas’s 8-year-old daughter. Wendy’s quickly caught on, and within less than a decade, had grown into a 1,000-store franchise. In 1989, Thomas took on the role of television spokesman for the company with a series of hugely successful commercials. He died in Florida in 2002.

Chef Rene Desque was born on April 28, 1944, in Chatham, New Jersey. In 1971, he opened her own restaurant, Chez Panisse. In 1996, she started the Edible Schoolyard at a Berkley middle school, along with a program called the School Lunch Initiative. That same year, she founded the Chez Panisse Foundation, which later launched the Garden Project.